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Trump's travel ban and rhetoric damages the country

Wade Munday
Published 12:02 p.m. CT Aug. 8, 2017

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Fuad Sharef Suleman, his wife, Arazoo Ibrahim, and their three children arrive Sunday night at Nashville International Airport after being denied access following the travel ban.(Photo: George Walker IV / The Tennessean)Buy Photo

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We should be building a better relationship with the Muslim world.

Wade Munday is the executive director of Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors

The movie "War Machine" stars Brad Pitt as General Glen McMahon, commander of American troops in Afghanistan. In the movie, McMahon needs to understand and use local Afghan resources but embarrassingly fails. As our soldiers risk their lives to protect us, it’s important that government policies support their efforts so that they can avoid such failures.

The administration’s travel ban is a bad policy, and it’s up for review by the Supreme Court this fall. The pretext for the travel ban was clear. President Donald Trump said it himself.

"Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on."

Here’s what’s going on:

We rely on men and women from those banned countries in order to keep our troops safe. The attitude of the president needlessly antagonizes people we depend on for help.

Our allies in the war on terror speak dialects in Libya that would otherwise remain unknown to our intelligence sources. They understand tribal conflicts in Yemen with centuries worth of intrinsic knowledge. They understand the difference between Somalis who faithfully practice Islam and those who pervert that religion to justify terrorism.

We should be building a better relationship with the Muslim world.

The young Afghan women who were denied twice the opportunity to compete in an American robotics competition before finally being admitted to the country could become Afghan leaders and American sympathizers. An entire trade conference of African leaders was cancelled when the U.S. denied their visas. The conference could have developed their business acumen and grown American businesses.

Young people in Iran increasingly want to build a better country. The same is true for scores of activists and authors in Libya. Unfortunately, they lose opportunities and hope when they’re turned away from the U.S.

The people affected by the travel ban are just like us — sons, daughters, parents, friends, and neighbors. If we were in their position, living in an unstable country, unable to protect or feed our families, wouldn’t we pray for help from strangers?

I am a practicing Christian, and I’m compelled to follow the words of Jesus and the prophets of the Bible. Words like “love your neighbor as yourself.” And “you shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Wade Munday(Photo: Submitted)

I’ve openly practiced my faith since I was 12 years old, and I’ve always believed the U.S. reflected my values through its commitment to foreign aid and the support for the rule of law overseas. As a young boy, America was great because of that. We’re losing our way by entertaining the notion that greatness comes by “trying to figure out what the hell is going on.”

Greatness comes from sticking to our core values and looking to the future. Greatness comes from supporting our troops and their partners overseas.

The travel ban is a small-minded, gut reaction founded in fear and gross ignorance of the Muslim world. It’s not rooted in my faith. It’s not found in my Bible.

The one thing that the president believes about the travel ban, that it makes us safer, is flat wrong. This mistake isn’t worth losing our safety, our soldiers or our soul as a nation.

After threats of nuclear action from North Korea, President Trump's, er, calm reaction was to issue a bigger, fiery, more powerful threat. He's always got to be firing something, usat.ly/2wIcXDk USA TODAY